Staff Software Engineer - One Data Platform Engineering

Enterprise Architecture / Architecture-as-Code One Data Platform Engineering Team is seeking a self-driven Staff Software Engineer with deep expertise in platform engineering, developer platforms, and framework design. This role focuses on envisioning and building foundational platform capabilities, frameworks, and developer tooling that enable engineering teams to deliver highly performant, scalable, secure, cloud-native, and AI-enabled applications. You will play a key role in shaping the evolution of our One Data Platform by building reusable platform services, advancing developer experience, and driving engineering excellence across the organization.

At American Express, our culture is built on a 175-year history of innovation, shared values and Leadership Behaviors, and an unwavering commitment to back our customers, communities, and colleagues. From delivering differentiated products to providing world-class customer service, we operate with a strong risk mindset, ensuring we continue to uphold our brand promise of trust, security, and service.

As part of Team Amex, you'll experience our powerful backing with comprehensive support for your holistic well-being and many opportunities to learn new skills, develop as a leader, and grow your career. Here, your voice and ideas matter, your work makes an impact, and together, you will help us define the future of American Express.

• Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor''s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field required; advanced degree preferred.

• 8+ years of software engineering experience in complex enterprise environments, including designing and building platforms, frameworks, or foundational services.

• Deep expertise building highly scalable, high-performance distributed systems and developer platforms.

• Experience designing platform capabilities, reusable frameworks, SDKs, APIs, or shared engineering services.

• Strong experience with Microservices Architecture, data-centric application design, event-driven systems, distributed systems, data pipelines, and stream processing.

• Hands-on experience with backend technologies (Node.js, Java, or similar), distributed systems, SQL/NoSQL databases, and cloud infrastructure.

• Experience designing and deploying applications on Function as a Service (FaaS) platforms (e.g., AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, Google Cloud Functions).

• Strong understanding of serverless architecture patterns, cloud-native application design, observability, resiliency, and platform scalability.

• Working knowledge of modern AI application architectures and concepts, including Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), agentic applications, tool calling, and AI orchestration patterns.

• Familiarity with emerging AI interoperability standards and protocols, including Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent-to-Agent (A2A), and related technologies for building enterprise AI applications.

• Proven track record of contributing to enterprise platforms, core frameworks, SDKs, libraries, or open source projects, with demonstrated expertise in their architecture and internals.

• Demonstrated technical leadership and mentorship within engineering organizations.

• Strategic thinker with the ability to align technical solutions with business goals.

• Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to resolve complex technical challenges.

• Strong sense of ownership and accountability for deliverables.

• Ability to influence technical direction and build consensus across teams.

• Customer-focused mindset, designing solutions with developer experience, end-user experience, and business value in mind.

• Demonstrated ability to lead through ambiguity and solve complex, partially defined problems.

• Passion for learning emerging technologies and staying current with advances in platform engineering, cloud computing, AI, and modern software engineering.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building internal developer platforms (IDPs), shared engineering platforms, or enterprise frameworks.

• Experience building or integrating AI-powered applications, developer platforms, or AI platform services.

• Experience with AI application frameworks and orchestration libraries such as LangGraph, OpenAI Agents SDK, or similar technologies.

• Experience with Python for platform engineering, automation, AI, or backend development.

• Experience with WebAssembly (Wasm), the WebAssembly Component Model, and related runtimes or ecosystems (e.g., Wasmtime, WASI, Spin, Fermyon, WasmCloud or Bytecode Alliance projects).

• Experience with cloud-native architectures and deployment on AWS, Azure, or GCP.

• Experience with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), CI/CD pipelines, GitOps, and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation).

• Knowledge of GraphQL platforms.

Depending on factors such as business unit requirements, the nature of the position, cost and appilcable laws, American Express may provide visa sponsorship for certain positions.

• 60% of the time spent on hands-on engineering activities across platform services, frameworks, cloud infrastructure, and developer tooling.

• Envision, design, develop, and release foundational platform and framework capabilities that enable developers to build highly performant, scalable, secure applications.

• Drive both high-level architecture and detailed technical designs, conducting design reviews and influencing engineering standards across teams.

• Design and implement reusable platform components, shared libraries, SDKs, APIs, and cloud services that improve developer productivity and accelerate application delivery.

• Evolve platform capabilities to support modern application architectures, including cloud-native, event-driven, and AI-enabled applications.

• Optimize platform services and framework components for performance, scalability, reliability, observability, and serverless/FaaS environments.

• Improve and maintain core platform services, frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, developer tooling, and Infrastructure as Code.

• Collaborate across engineering organizations to establish platform standards, best practices, and architectural guidance.

• Actively participate in architecture and engineering discussions, helping define the technical direction of the One Data Platform.

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship, guiding engineers through complex architectural and implementation challenges.

• Collaborate effectively across teams and with stakeholders to deliver impactful platform capabilities.

• Demonstrate strong problem-solving skills, resolving complex and ambiguous technical challenges.

• Take ownership and accountability for outcomes, driving initiatives from concept through delivery.

• Influence technical direction and drive alignment across teams.

• Advocate for customer-focused solutions, ensuring exceptional developer experience and business value.

• Analyze, design, develop, debug, and evolve software platforms supporting enterprise-scale applications.

• Serve as a passionate advocate for our developer platform, frameworks, and engineering ecosystem.

• 60% of the time spent on hands-on engineering activities across platform services, frameworks, cloud infrastructure, and developer tooling.

• Envision, design, develop, and release foundational platform and framework capabilities that enable developers to build highly performant, scalable, secure applications.

• Drive both high-level architecture and detailed technical designs, conducting design reviews and influencing engineering standards across teams.

• Design and implement reusable platform components, shared libraries, SDKs, APIs, and cloud services that improve developer productivity and accelerate application delivery.

• Evolve platform capabilities to support modern application architectures, including cloud-native, event-driven, and AI-enabled applications.

• Optimize platform services and framework components for performance, scalability, reliability, observability, and serverless/FaaS environments.

• Improve and maintain core platform services, frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, developer tooling, and Infrastructure as Code.

• Collaborate across engineering organizations to establish platform standards, best practices, and architectural guidance.

• Actively participate in architecture and engineering discussions, helping define the technical direction of the One Data Platform.

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship, guiding engineers through complex architectural and implementation challenges.

• Collaborate effectively across teams and with stakeholders to deliver impactful platform capabilities.

• Demonstrate strong problem-solving skills, resolving complex and ambiguous technical challenges.

• Take ownership and accountability for outcomes, driving initiatives from concept through delivery.

• Influence technical direction and drive alignment across teams.

• Advocate for customer-focused solutions, ensuring exceptional developer experience and business value.

• Analyze, design, develop, debug, and evolve software platforms supporting enterprise-scale applications.

• Serve as a passionate advocate for our developer platform, frameworks, and engineering ecosystem.